The present invention is directed to a pizza oven tool incorporating means for inserting, retrieving and positioning pizza pans in conveyor and conventional deck ovens.
As deep-dish and stuffed pizzas gain ever increasing popularity, pizza chefs face an increasing range of problems in practicing their trade. Pizza chefs are now more than ever required to manipulate heavy pans in hot ovens. These heavy pans are difficult to manage and heat up to a high temperature very quickly. They pose a potential hazard of severe burns to pizza chefs. For example, the pizza pans in conventional ovens are often rotated through a series of positions during the cooking operation so that an evenly cooked product is obtained. Similarly, pizza pans in conveyor ovens are often inserted or retrieved in mid-cycle. Thus there exists a need for a safe method and apparatus for manipulating pizza pans in conveyor and conventional deck ovens.
Further, increasing business often requires that many pizzas be cooked in an oven at one time. This presents a problem of adequately positioning the pizza pans in the oven while hurrying to get the job done. Special care must be taken with the pizza pans placed in the back of the ovens. On the one hand, they must be placed as close to the back wall as is feasible in order to leave room for pizza pans to be placed in the middle and front portion of the oven. On the other hand, in order to ensure an even distribution of heat around the pizza pan and a correspondingly evenly cooked pizza, it is preferable that the pizza pan does not contact the back wall of the oven. It is especially important to avoid pushing the pizza pan too far into conveyor belt ovens, because the pan may get caught near the back wall of the oven with the result that the pizza may burn before completing its journey through the oven or interupt the progress of succeeding pizzas. Thus there exists a need for a method and apparatus for placing pizza pans in optimal positions towards the back of such ovens.
The preparation of personal size pan pizzas in conveyor ovens such as the Middleby-Marshall 220 and 250 ovens has presented further problems in the pizza industry. Small pizzas require less cooking time than large ones. As a result, personal size pan pizzas must be fed into the conveyor oven window opening near the start of the conveyor cycle and retrieved at the end of the conveyor cycle and/or they must be fed into the opening at the start of the cycle and retrieved the end of the cycle. The small pizzas only cook for about seventy-five percent (75%) as long as large pizzas. This requires that the pizza chef insert and retrieve pizzas via the conveyor oven side window which is hot, narrow and generally not at eye level. It is therefore particularly difficult to peer inside this side window, and as a result a tendency develops to feed the pizza pans into the oven in a haphazard manner.
The popularity of personal pan size pizzas, especially during peak lunch and dinner hours seems to be increasing. But if customers are kept waiting for a significant period of time, especially during their lunch hour, they are likely to turn to competing fast food services. In order to ensure quick service it is necessary to maintain close spacing between adjacent pizza pans so that a maximum number of pizzas can be cooked at one time. This is not possible when pizza pans are fed into the ovens in a haphazard manner. Thus, there exists a need for a method and apparatus that will provide a simple but organized manner of processing personal size pan pizzas in conveyor ovens so that customers can be served quickly during peak hours.
Finally, during peak hours, the rush to prepare pizzas often leads to increased risk of burns. This risk may be augmented by fatigue resulting from oven heat that can overcome the pizza chef who is required to peer into a hot oven while manipulating the pizza pans. There exists a need for a quick and efficient method and apparatus for performing these pizza cooking operations so that stress, fatigue and resulting accident risk can be minimized.